. . . OUR . . . 

School  Work  at  Lavras 

BY 

B.  H.  HUNNICUTT 


Industrial  School,  Lavras,  Brazil 


Executive  Committee  Foreign  Missions 
Presbyterian  Church,  U.  S. 
Nashville,  Tenn. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2017  with  funding  from 
Columbia  University  Libraries 


https://archiye.org/details/ourschoolworkatlOOhunn 


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Our  School  Work  at  Lavras 


B.  H.  HUNNICUTT. 

More  than  twenty  years  ago  (1892)  the  mis- 
sion station  of  Lavras  in  the  State  of  Minas 
Geraes  in  Brazil  was  established  by  Dr.  Gammon 
and  Miss  Charlotte  Kemper  together  with  sev- 
eral others.  The  school  that  had  been  in  opera- 
tion at  Campinas  was  brought  by  them  to  Lavras, 
and  established  anew  as  the  Evangelical  Insti- 
tute. The  pioneer  work  of  the  missionary — the 
evangelistic — occupied  the  time  of  the  missiona- 
ries almost  completely  for  about  the  first  ten 
years.  Then  a boys’  school  was  established  which 
later  grew  into  the  Gymnasium  of  Lavras,  and 
the  girls’  school  was  given  the  name,  and  most 
deservedly  so,  the  Charlotte  Kemper  Seminary. 
The  latest  addition  to  the  schools  forming  the 
Evangelical  Institute  is  the  Lavras  Agricultural 
School,  the  preliminary  organization  of  which 
was  begun  in  1908. 

OUR  IDEALS. 

We  have  a fair  amount  of  equipment  at  Lavras, 
and  it  is  our  purpose  in  that  work  to  strengthen 
the  native  church  as  much  as  possible.  Referring 
to  the  work  in  the  slums  of  one  of  our  great 
cities,  some  has  said  : “It  is  of  little  use  to  preach 
the  Gospel  to  a famishing  man  and  then  turn 
him  loose  again  before  the  temptations  of  the 
underworld  and  at  the  very  door  of  the  free 
lunch  saloon  with  an  empty  stomach.”  And  so 


it  is  in  Brazil.  To  convert  the  Brazilians  and 
turn  them  loose  with  famishing  minds  on  the 
dreary  intellectual  waste  of  the  country,  with  its 
eighty  per  cent  of  illiterates  and  small  literature, 
mostly  skeptical  and  atheistic,  is  a parallel  case. 
So  we  try  to  offer  a broad  education  to  the  peo- 
ple of  our  Church,  that  they  may  better  serve 
the  Master  and  find  more  comfort  in  the  study 
of  His  word.  A large  part  of  our  membership 
is  among  the  rural  people,  the  only  real  middle 
class  in  Brazil.  And  instead  of  trying  to  educate 
their  sons  so  as  to  unfit  them  for  life  on  the 
farm,  we  endeavor  in  the  agricultural  school  to 
fit  them  for  that  noble  life,  and  to  equip  them 
for  leadership  in  this  line  of  development,  so 
essential  in  a new  country. 

And  what  about  the  native  ministry?  We 
try  to  do  our  largest  share  of  work  for  them. 
We  never  turn  away  a bona  fide  candidate  for 
the  ministry.  We  have  on  the  average  twelve 
candidates,  and  do  require  them  to  manage 
some  way  to  furnish  themseles  with  clothes,  but 
their  board  and  schooling  is  given  them  in  return 
for  their  work  for  fourteen  hours  a week.  In 
this  way  we  are  doing  all  in  our  power  to  train 
the  native  ministry  and  furnish  the  native  laity 
with  an  education  that  will  enable  them  to  pro- 
vide better  livelihood  and  more  bodily  comforts, 
but  primarily  to  give  them  greater  efficiency  as 
Christian  workers. 

OUR  METHODS  OF  WORK. 

Just  a few  words  about  our  general  methods 
of  work.  It  will  be  of  interest  to  know  how  we 
use  this  educational  and  industrial  work  as  an 


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evangelistic  agency.  Every  student  in  any  of  our 
schools,  without  exception,  whether  day  scholar 
or  boarder,  is  required  to  take  a systematic  course 
of  Bible  study  from  the  time  that  he  or  she  enters 
one  of  our  schools.  Not  all  of  our  students  are 
Protestants,  so  you  can  easily  see  how  far  reach- 
ing such  a training  is  for  the  Christian  student 
and  for  Roman  Catholic  or  otherwise  non-Chris- 
tian student.  In  our  agricultural  school  we  have 
arrangements  with  both  the  Federal  and  State 
Governments  by  which  they  maintain  a dozen 
scholarships  in  our  school.  But  these  pupils  are 
not  in  the  least  exempt  from  that  Bible  course, 
and  the  government  understands  that  fully.  You 
may  say,  “suppose  some  day  the  government 
should  say  that  the  pupils  sent  there  by  them 
were  not  obliged  to  take  such  wTork.”  Then  we 
would  immediately  give  up  those  scholarships,  no 
matter  how  advantageous  they  were  for  us.  And 
what  more  besides  this  study  of  the  Bible?  The 
boarding  pupils  are  required  to  attend  the  serv- 
ices of  the  church,  to  attend  prayers  morning  and 
evening,  and  all  pupils  are  required  to  attend  the 
devotional  exercises  at  the  opening  of  the  schools. 
The  boarders  live  in  small  dormitories  under  the 
direct  influences  of  the  family  life  of  the  mis- 
sionary in  charge.  So  no  stone  is  left  unturned 
to  give  them  the  opportunity  of  knowing  and  un- 
derstanding and  accepting  the  Gospel. 

SOME  RESULTS. 

And  with  what  results  have  these  efforts  to 
apply  this  conception  of  our  missionary  duty  in 
our  Lavras  work  been  attended?  Last  June 
three  young  Brazilian  men  that  had  received  their 


foundation  training  in  our  school  finished  the 
Theological  Seminary  at  Campinas,  and  one  is 
today  the  native  pastor  of  the  church  at  Lavras. 
About  eight  of  our  teachers  in  the  Lavras  insti- 
tute have  received  their  training  with  us  and  are 
all  Christian  men  and  women.  Many  of  the  good 
wives  of  our  members  have  received  training  in 
our  schools  that  fitted  them  for  being  not  only 
better  home  makers  and  mothers  but  also  better 
Christians.  And  our  graduates,  both  of  the  Gym- 
nasium, the  Seminary,  and  the  Agricultural 
School  are  going  out.  into  the  various  parts  of 
the  country  in  many  capacities  to  become  centers 
of  Christian  activity  and  influence.  And  many 
of  the  non-Christian  students  who  may  not  have 
accepted  the  Gospel  nevertheless  have  lost  their 
prejudices  against  the  Portestant  religion,  and 
go  forth  to  help  in  that  necessary  work  of  over- 
coming the  open  opposition  to  our  work.  And 
all  through  their  lives  they  are  more  open  and 
susceptible  to  the  Gospel.  Since  our  connection 
with  the  school  never  has  a year  passed  that  we 
have  not  had  several  conversions  among  the  stu- 
dents, and  as  they  come  from  many  States  no 
doubt  much  new  work  is  to  be  expected  from 
them.  With  the  medical  work  and  in  our  schools, 
we  are  trying  to  embody  the  teachings  of  Christ 
in  striving  for  the  uplift  of  the  whole  man  and 
helping  prepare  the  native  church  to  carry  on 
the  work  of  its  establishment  and  development 
that  the  evangelization  of  Brazil  may  be  more 
speedily  realized. 


